Iran's Secret Society Wrote the Constitution — Then Got Hanged for It

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The man who wrote Iran's first constitution operated under oath of secrecy while simultaneously drafting the documents that were supposed to end secret [music] rule. This is the shadow lecture. The Anjoman A Makhfi, the secret society [music] formed in Tehran before the constitutional revolution of 1906, drawing journalists, clerics, and merchants into a documented network of coded correspondence, sworn oaths, and cell-based organization.

[00:00:30]Ali Akbar Dehkhoda recorded its proceedings. The oaths survive.

[00:00:36]The Qajar Crown knew the society existed before the constitution was ratified.

[00:00:41]They did not disband it. They penetrated it. Royalist informants attended meetings and filed reports directly to Mohammad Ali Shah.

[00:00:50]When the Shah ordered the bombardment of the Majlis in 1908, he already held the membership rolls. Dehkhoda [music] fled.

[00:00:59]Several members were hanged in the parliamentary garden where they had met.

[00:01:03]The constitution survived. The men who wrote it, some of them did not. The shadow lecture.

[00:01:09]Every secret leaves a record. Follow for the next one.